Jabil faces delay in Nypro closing

By: Bill Bregar

March 22, 2013

ST. PETERSBURG, FLA. -- While Nypro Inc.'s employee owners are voting on whether to sell their shares to big contract manufacturer Jabil Circuit Inc., the anticipated closing of the deal is getting pushed back a bit, to Jabil's fourth quarter, which ends Aug. 31.

"We feel like we're going to close the Nypro deal, if everything goes as planned, in the very early part of Q4," said Jabil CEO Mark Mondello in a second-quarter con­ference call with financial analysts.

Beth Walters, senior vice president of investor relations and communications, said the delay is expected because regulatory approval is still needed from several countries, including China, Russia and Hungary.

Competition authorities in the U.S. and Germany have already approved the deal, Walters said. The company had previously said it expected to close the deal in its third quarter, which ends in May.

Walters also said the vote by members of Nypro's Employee Stock Ownership Plan is going on now, and will be completed March 28. A shareholders' meeting follows April 2.

An 85 percent vote is required to approve the sale, Walters said.

Jabil, a $17 billion contract manufacturer of medical, consumer electronics and packaging that is traded on the New York Stock Exchange, is buying Nypro for $665 million. Jabil is based in St. Petersburg, Fla.

Meanwhile, Mondello said he and other Jabil officials have already been meeting with Nypro customers

Nypro is based in Clinton, Mass.; Mondello said that town will continue to play a key role.

"We intend to run the health-care business and the packaging business out of Clinton, Mass. ... We'll continue to fly those businesses strongly under the Nypro flag and the Nypro brand," he told analysts in the March 20 call. "And on the consumer side, we'll have their consumer business consolidated with Jabil's consumer business, and that's an area we've competed with them directly. We've got a lot of respect for them in that area."